Can small reductions in Rubisco content improve nitrogen use in wheat without negatively impacting biomass or grain yield?

Clicks: 20
ID: 327407
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #203 of 406 articles by views in Journal of experimental botany

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 406 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
In this study, the level of Rubisco protein was reduced in wheat using RNAi, to test the hypothesis that photosynthesis, growth, and grain yield could be maintained whilst improving nitrogen use efficiency. The RNAi Rubisco wheat plants, with a Rubisco activity of less than 70% of wild type (WT) plant levels, had reduced photosynthesis, reductions in leaf and stem biomass and decreased seed yield. Interestingly, in the wheat RNAi Rubisco lines that had a small (<30%) reduction in Rubisco activity, the seed number per ear, total seed weight and harvest index were comparable to that of WT type plants. However, no improvement in photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) was evident in any of the RNAi Rubisco lines. Notably, PNUE was lower than for WT wheat plants in the RNAi lines with more than a 30% reduction in Rubisco activity. This result was unexpected and caused by an accumulation of N in both the leaves and seeds. At present we do not have an explanation for this, but one possible hypothesis is that it could be due to slower growth caused by a reduction in source strength in the RNAi plants, which in turn resulted in changes to carbon and nitrogen allocation.
Reference Key
openalex_W7131385571 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Saqer S. Alotaibi, Jack AM Matthews, Steven M. Driever, Caroline A. Sparks, Martin AJ Parry, Tracy Reilly Lawson, Christine A. Raines
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal Journal of experimental botany
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/jxb/erag433
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erag433
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.